the value of tourism in worcestershire final report march...

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The Value of Tourism in Worcestershire

_____________________________

Final Report

March 2013

Office 234

79 Friar Street

Worcester

Worcestershire, WR1 2NT

Tel. 01905 729276

www.worcester-research.co.uk

http://www.worcester-research.co.uk/

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Contents

Section

Page

Executive Summary

3

Background and Introduction

Methodology

5

8

Findings

9

Conclusion

Appendix

26

27

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1) Executive Summary

Worcester Research was commissioned in 2013 by the Worcestershire Local

Enterprise Partnership to undertake an economic impact study which determined

the current state of tourism in Worcestershire and the impact it has upon the

Worcestershire economy.

The project aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the visitor economy in

Worcestershire. It was intended to establish the number of visitors to Worcestershire,

as well as provide detailed information about the structure of the industry and the

value it generates for the local economy.

To fulfil the project aims, the research methodology consisted of a detailed review of

existing available information sources, such as Visit England and the International

Passenger Survey.

Key findings from the feasibility study were:

Between 2008-2010, there were 738,000 domestic trips annually to

Worcestershire. The main destinations for domestic trips are Worcester City,

Wychavon and Malvern Hills. Worcestershire accounts for 8% of the total number of

domestic visits to the West Midlands.

Visitors spend approximately two million nights overnight in Worcestershire.

The most popular destinations for overnight stays are Wychavon, Worcester City and

Malvern Hills. Worcestershire accounts for 9% of the total number of overnight stays in

the West Midlands.

39.8% of overnight stays to Worcestershire are for Holidays, 8.1% are for

Business purposes and over half are for visiting friends and relatives. These numbers

vary widely between the different local districts within the county. There are a higher

proportion of visitors staying overnight for Holiday and VFR (Visiting Friends and

Relatives) purposes in Worcestershire than the West Midlands as a whole, but a

smaller proportion of business overnight stays.

Overnight visitors to Worcestershire on average stay 2.9 days, 0.7 days longer

than to the West Midlands as a whole. The longest trips are to Wyre Forest (3.8 days)

and Malvern Hills (3.2), whilst the shortest trips are to Bromsgrove (1.6 days)

Annually, there are 101,000 international trips to Worcestershire, which

accounts for 6.3% of the total number of inbound visitors to the West Midlands.

Tourism expenditure accounts for £538 million in Worcestershire. Domestic day

visitors generate the most revenue, accounting for 71%. Domestic overnight tourism

accounts for a further £100 million. Tourism expenditure in the West Midlands is more

varied than in Worcestershire, with more revenue generated by the outbound

domestic tourists.

‘Other products’ such as fairs and exhibitions account for the greatest

proportion of tourism expenditure in Worcestershire. Food and beverage serving are

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account for the second largest proportion of tourism spending (23%). Passenger and

transport services account for only 2% of tourism expenditure in Worcestershire, but

more than 14% in the West Midlands.

10% of the workforce in Worcestershire work within tourism related industries,

accounting for more than 25,100 jobs. The proportions are significantly different at a

local district level; only 6% work in tourism related roles in Redditch, but it is 14% in

Wyre Forest and 13% in Bromsgrove and the Malvern Hills.

The levels of qualification attainment are slightly higher in the Worcestershire

tourism sector than the tourism sector in the West Midlands as a whole.

In Worcestershire, 12,229 work in the food and drink service sectors, 5,469 work

in cultural, sports, recreation and conference activities, 4,505 are employed in

passenger transport, transport hire and travel agency activities and 2,897 work in

accommodation.

Full time workers account for only 41% of the tourism related workforce in

Worcestershire, which is a smaller proportion than the 45% in the West Midlands. This

varies across the six local districts from 44% in Wychavon to 37% in Wyre Forest.

30.8% of tourism related businesses report having hard-to-fill vacancies and

31.7% of all vacancies are considered hard-to-fill by employers.

Whilst a comparable proportion of businesses in the West Midlands and

Worcestershire report staff with skills gaps, the proportion of staff with skills gaps in

Worcestershire is almost half of that in the West Midlands as a whole (5.6% to 10.5%

respectively)

There are 1, 279 tourism related businesses, accounting for 5.7% of all

businesses in Worcestershire. In the Malvern Hills, this rate is almost doubled, with 9.1%

of all businesses being related to tourism. Malvern Hills and Wychavon account for

approximately half of all tourism related businesses in Worcestershire.

The proportions of businesses for each sub-sector of tourism are similar

between the West Midlands and Worcestershire. However, there are a much smaller

proportion of passenger transport businesses in Worcestershire than across the West

Midlands.

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2) Introduction and Background

Worcestershire is a part of the ‘Heart of England,’ which also encompasses

Birmingham, the Black Country, Coventry, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Stratford-on-

Avon, Shropshire and Staffordshire.

Tourism is a vital part of the Worcestershire economy. The area caters to a range of

different tourism related sectors, including:

Leisure Tourism

Business Tourism

Accommodation

Food and Beverage

Transport

Leisure Tourism

Destination Worcestershire, (the official Destination Management Organisation

which feeds into the national tourism body Visit England) promotes the highly rural

nature and the history of the county, with a large majority of pictures on the official

tourism website showing natural sites of beauty and historical places of interest.

There are a wide variety of different visitor attractions in Worcestershire, some of

which are included below.

The West Midlands Safari Park is one of the most important visitor attractions in

Worcestershire. It is the third most visited zoo or park in the country; in 2009, there

were over 580,000 paid admissions to the park, with a further 164,000 complimentary

and free return visitors.

The park primarily markets towards younger children and families, but there have

been recent considerations to develop a conference centre, hotel and water park

at the existing site. The park already includes a variety of attractions such as the

safari itself, a theme park, aquarium, reptile house, Hippo Lake and a monorail

system.

The Severn Valley Railway, located in Kidderminster, is the sixth most visited paid

attraction in the West Midlands with 225,000 visitors in 2010. This decreased by 4.4% in

2011, to only 215,000. The railway runs from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth in Shropshire.

Whilst there have been discussions concerning increasing the length of the track

and joining with other locations, such as the Ironbridge Gorge in Telford, at present

there are no plans for any extension, and even if they were undertaken, would take

more than 20 years to complete.

Another source of visitors is the Malvern Hills and the other Areas of Outstanding

Natural Beauty in Worcestershire. The Cotswolds and other extensive nature reserves,

including the Knapp and Papermill reserve, Tiddesly Wood and the Christopher

Cadbury Wetland Reserve at Upton Warren. In 2009, there were an estimated 1.7

million trips made by visitors to the Malvern Hills, contributing a total spend of £81.5

(including travel costs), creating almost 1,200 additional jobs in the area.

There is a variety of heritage and cultural sites in Worcestershire. Worcester

Cathedral, Elgar’s birthplace, Discover History – The Worcester Story and National

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Trust properties like Hanbury Hall are all important heritage attractions that have an

international appeal for visitors. Historical sites, particularly those connected to the

civil war, are important visitor attractions, with a variety of sites in Worcester itself.

Business Tourism

There are a wide variety of venues available for business tourism, including the Three

Counties Showground, with space for 2,200 delegates. There are over 40 conference

centres in the county, including purpose built conference centres like Farncombe

Conference Centre as well as a variety of hotels, sporting stadiums and stately

homes offering conference, meeting and event facilities. Conferences and

meetings are highly important for the attractions in Worcestershire; with several

leisure tourism venues also offering facilities for business tourism, such as the Severn

Valley Railway, the Malvern Theatres, the Elgar Birthplace Museum as well as

countryside centres with green credentials.

Team building activities are also advertised in the area, including the Go Ape! No. 1

Tree Top Adventure course in the Wyre Forest and Top Barn Farm. This also helps to

combine leisure tourism attractions with business tourism; bringing these business

visitors to the area can lead to them being repeat visitors to the leisure attraction.

Events

There are also several large exhibitions and events that take place in Worcestershire

including those at the Three Counties Showground. These range of events include

trade shows, flea markets, antique fairs and motor-shows as well as the major

agricultural, horticultural and food and drink shows that are held every year. The

Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre is an annual event held in the city of Worcester

every year and attracts in excess of 100,000 people. Other popular events include

those held at the Severn Valley Railway including the 1940's weekend and Santa

Steam Safari's, events at West Midland Safari and Leisure Park as well as food and

drink events like the British Asparagus Festival and the Pershore Plum Festival. There

are also a huge variety of festivals growing year on year including the Broadway Arts

Festival, Malvern walking Festival and the Love Worcester Heritage Festival.

The annual sporting calendar is also very important to Worcestershire attracting

sports enthusiasts to events at Worcester Racecourse, Worcester Warriors Rugby

Football Club, Worcestershire County Cricket Club, Shelsley Motorsport as well as

river regattas and cycle races.

Accommodation

Accommodation is an important part of the tourism sector in Worcestershire; there

are 131 accommodation related businesses in Worcestershire. These vary from farm

holidays and caravans to B&Bs and even four star hotels.

Destination Worcestershire also suggests a variety of ‘themed visits,’ such as Family

Breaks, Romantic Breaks, Heritage Breaks, Boating Breaks, environmentally friendly

holidays and ‘tasty breaks’ which focuses on providing good food from the local

area. This allows for a broader potential market for overnight visitors to the area.

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Overnight accommodation is an important part of the visitor economy and should

be encouraged, as on average, overnight tourists spend more than two and a half

times more than day visitors.

Food and Beverage

Food and beverage serving businesses are an important part of the tourism industry

in Worcestershire, with a wide range of different styles and qualities available. Over

two-fifths of all tourism related businesses in Worcestershire are food and beverage

serving ones.

There are a wide range of different food and drink serving businesses in

Worcestershire, ranging from restaurants, hotels, pubs, cafes, tea rooms and even

high street providers. There are several AA rosette approved hotels that provide high

quality food to their guests.

As mentioned before, there are opportunities for food and drink breaks in

Worcestershire, including cooking breaks, where visitors can develop their skills. There

are also recommended accommodation, which serve high standards of food and

drink.

Transport

Transport is a key part of a visitor economy. Worcestershire has a variety of different

methods for tourists to be able to travel around.

Automobile transport is the key to getting around in Worcestershire; whilst there is a

focus on walking and hiking at various tourist locations, the key method of visiting

these different areas is by car. The M5 connects Worcestershire with Birmingham and

the North, whilst the M42 connects the area to the M40 and the South. Several A-

roads also run through Worcestershire such as the A442 and A449, which connect

the county with Shropshire in the North and Herefordshire in the South.

There are also strong rail links in Worcestershire; several of the large towns have

railway stations, including Worcester (which has two separate stations: Foregate

Street and Shrub Hill), Redditch, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Droitwich Spa and

Malvern (which has two separate stations: Great Malvern and Malvern Link). The

area is directly linked with train routes to Birmingham, Hereford, Cheltenham, Bristol,

The Cotswolds, Oxford and London Paddington.

There are several different bus services run throughout Worcestershire; the majority of

these are short services which serve local geographic areas and single local

authorities. However, there are longer routes, which include areas such as Stratford-

on-Avon, thereby improving the accessibility of the county.

Whilst there are no airports within Worcestershire itself, Birmingham International

airport is only 40 minutes drive and less than 90 minutes by railway.

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3) Methodology

In order to understand the impact of tourism in Worcestershire, data has been

collected for 15 key areas. These included:

1) Total domestic annual trips (including a rolling 3 year average)

2) Total domestic annual overnight trips (including a rolling 3 year average)

3) Total domestic annual spend (including a rolling 3 year average)

4) Number of international visitors

5) Value of tourism expenditure by visitor type (domestic overnight, day visitor

etc)

6) Value of tourism expenditure by activity (e.g. accommodation, transport,

activities, food and drink)

7) Total tourism related employment (total number and as a percentage of all

sector workforce)

8) Tourism related employment by industry

9) Tourism related employment by industry and by nature (e.g. full time and part

time)

10) Tourism related employment by occupation

11) Percentage of tourism related businesses reporting hard to fill vacancies

12) Percentage of tourism related businesses reporting skills gaps

13) Qualification levels of tourism related employees

14) Total number of tourism related businesses

15) Total number of tourism related businesses by industry.

It will also be important to include two other pieces of information, with the data for

Worcestershire.

Regional Comparator: It will be useful to compare the performance of

Worcestershire to the rest of the West Midlands and see if Worcestershire if

performing above or below the regional average. This will help to identify

areas that require improvement and will show which areas are suffering on a

regional level.

District Data: As well as producing data for the County as a whole, it will also

be useful, where possible, to break down data to include information at a

smaller, more local level, such as by district or including the major individual

towns. This will help to show the areas that tourism has the greatest impact

and where it has the least impact.

There will not always be available data at smaller, local levels due to the

types of data being collected.

Note: At present it is not possible to give accurate, up to date information about

tourism related employment by occupation for Worcestershire. This data is not

currently available and will not be available until the results of the 2011 census have

been fully published.

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4) Findings

The following chapter sets out the key findings from the project, divided into the 15

key areas identified above:

Visitors: Numbers and Domestic Spending

1) Total domestic annual trips (including a rolling 3 year average)

Table 1.1 Annual Total Domestic trips 2009-2011

Geographical Location Average Number of Total

Domestic Trips 2009-2011

(000s of trips)

Percentage of Average Number

of Total Annual Trips to

Worcestershire 2009-2011

Worcestershire 738 100%

Bromsgrove 49 6.6%

Malvern Hills 151 20.7%

Redditch 63 8.5%

Worcester City 183 24.8%

Wychavon 179 24.3%

Wyre Forest 113 15.3%

West Midlands 9,263 N/A Source: Great Britain Survey Analysis 2009-2011, Visit England, 2011

The two locations with the greatest number of total domestic annual trips are

Worcester City and Wychavon, with an annual average of 183,000 and 179,000 trips

respectively. These two local authorities alone account for almost half of all trips to

Worcestershire. Malvern Hills is the next most visited with 151,000 trips, over a fifth of

the total number of trips.

The two local authorities with the fewest average annual trips are Redditch (63,000)

and Bromsgrove (49,000), accounting for only 8.5% and 6.6% of the total number of

domestic trips respectively. These two areas are identified as receiving the lowest

overall impact from tourism throughout the report.

2) Total domestic annual overnight trips

Table 2.1 Average Total Domestic Nights 2008-2010

Geographical

Location

Average Number of Total

Domestic Nights 2009-2011

(000s of Nights)

Percentage of the Average

Number of Total Domestic

Overnight Trips to Worcestershire

2009-2011

Worcestershire 2,106 100%

Bromsgrove 80 3.8%

Malvern Hills 480 22.8%

Redditch 163 7.7%

Worcester City 505 24.0%

Wychavon 444 21.1%

Wyre Forest 434 20.6%

West Midlands 19,976 N/A Source: Great Britain Survey Analysis 2009-2011, Visit England, 2011

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Worcester City and the Malvern Hills receive the greatest number of trips each year,

whilst Bromsgrove and Redditch receive the fewest. This reflects the nature of these

different districts; the Malvern Hills are an international tourist attraction and

Worcester City has a wide variety of historic and cultural attractions whilst

Bromsgrove and Redditch are smaller towns with few tourist attractions for visitors.

Table 2.2 Average Total Domestic Nights by purpose 2008-2010

Holiday Business VFR

Geographical

Location

Average

Domestic

Holiday

Nights

2009-2011

(000s of

Nights)

% of

total

Over

night

Visits

Average

Domestic

Business

Nights

2009-2011

(000s of

Nights)

% of

total

Over

night

Visits

Average

Domestic

Business

Nights

2009-2011

(000s of

Nights)

% of

total

Over

night

Visits

Worcestershire 838 39.8% 171 8.1% 1097 52.1%

Bromsgrove 23 28.8% 12 15.0% 45 56.3%

Malvern Hills 264 55.0% 43 9.0% 173 36.0%

Redditch 29 17.8% 8 4.9% 126 77.3%

Worcester

City

98 19.4% 69 13.7% 338 66.9%

Wychavon 162 36.5% 39 8.8% 243 54.7%

Wyre Forest 262 60.4% 0 0.0% 172 39.6%

West Midlands 7039 35.2% 3419 17.1% 9518 47.6% Source: Great Britain Survey Analysis 2009-2011, Visit England, 2011

On average, visitors are 4.6% more likely to stay overnight for a holiday in

Worcestershire than in the West Midlands region as a whole. The table above shows

the variance between the districts as holiday locations where visitors want to stay

overnight. Over 50% of overnight visitors to the Malvern Hills are staying for holidays,

whilst less than one-fifth of overnight visitors to Redditch and Worcester City stay for

holidays.

Less than one in twelve visitors stay overnight in Worcestershire for Business purposes.

Whilst the proportion is much higher in Bromsgrove (15%), less than 5% of visitors of

overnight visitors to Redditch stay for business and none in the Wyre Forest. This is

worrying as business tourists are more likely to spend more money and increasing the

demand for business trips may raise tourism revenue. The West Midlands rate of

business tourism overnight stays is more than double the rate in Worcestershire.

The majority (52.1%) of overnight visits to Worcestershire are to visit friends and

relatives (VFR) . In the more leisure tourism focused areas, such as Malvern and the

Wyre Forest, this accounts for approximately a third of trips. However, in areas such

as Redditch, more than three-quarters of overnight trips are for VFR purposes. VFR

visitors tend to spend far less, due to not having to pay for accommodation or food

and drink.

By examining the number of Domestic Overnight nights and the total number of

trips, the average number of nights per trip can be worked out. From this it can be

shown that there is significant variance between the different districts. Wychavon

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has the largest average number of nights per trip (3.1) whilst Bromsgrove has the

fewest with only 1.7 nights per trip.

Overnight trips to Worcestershire tend to last 0.3 nights longer than those to the West

Midlands as a whole.

Table 2.3 Total Domestic Nights, Trips and average number of nights per trip

Geographical Location Total Domestic

Nights 2009-2011

Total Domestic

Overnight Trips

(average 2009-

2011) (000s of Trips)

Average

Number of

Nights per Trip

Worcestershire 2,106 738 2.9

Bromsgrove 80 49 1.6

Malvern Hills 480 151 3.2

Redditch 163 63 2.6

Worcester City 505 183 2.8

Wychavon 444 179 2.5

Wyre Forest 434 113 3.8

West Midlands 19,976 9,263 2.2 Source: Total Domestic Overnight Trips 2009-2011, Visit England, 2011

3) Total Domestic Annual Spend

The average total domestic annual spend of visitors to Worcestershire was £87 million

from 2009-2011. More than 75%, or £68 million, of this is spent in just three local

districts: Wychavon, Worcester City and Malvern Hills. Only £20 million was spent in

Bromsgrove, Redditch and Wyre Forest combined, making these three districts much

less important for tourism spends in Worcestershire.

Worcestershire represents only 7.9% of the total domestic annual spend to the West

Midlands.

Table 3.1 Average Total Domestic Annual Spend 2009-2011

Geographical Location Average Total Domestic Annual

Spend 2008-2010 (£millions)

Worcestershire 88

Bromsgrove 4

Malvern Hills 26

Redditch 4

Worcester City 18

Wychavon 24

Wyre Forest 12

West Midlands 1,120

Source: Great Britain Survey Analysis 2009-2011, Visit England, 2011

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4) Number of international visitors

Table 4.1 Average Number of International Visitors

Geographical Location Average Number of International Visits 2009-

2011

Worcestershire 101,000

Droitwich 4,333

Evesham 13,333

Malvern (Great/Wells) 16,333

Worcester 38,333

Other Towns 28,666

West Midlands (visit England, West

midlands regional summary 2010)

1,608,000

Source: International passenger survey 2009-2011, ONS

Figure for ‘Other towns’ in Worcestershire derived by halving the figure for ‘Other towns’ in

Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Worcestershire accounts for 6.3% of the total number of visitors to the West Midlands.

Within Worcestershire, the most popular destination for international visits is Worcester

City itself, accounting for 38% of visits. Droitwich, Evesham and Malvern combined

receive fewer visitors than Worcester City (only 33, 999 compared to 38, 333). ‘Other

towns’ in the Worcestershire area account for the remaining international visitors;

28.3% of visitors travel to one of the smaller towns in Worcestershire.

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Visitor Expenditure

5) Value of Tourism Expenditure by Visitor Type (domestic overnight, day visitor

etc)

The total visitor expenditure to Worcester shire is £538 million. This is only 7.7% of the

total tourism expenditure in the West Midlands.

Table 5.1 Total Tourism Expenditure by Visitor Type

Geographical

Location

Tourism Expenditure (£m)

Inbound

Visitors

Domestic

Overnight

Visitors

Domestic

Day

Visitors

Domestic

Outbound

Visitors

Total

Worcestershire 38 100 384 16 538

West Midlands 592 1,204 3,916 1,277 6,989 Source: Estimated Tourism Expenditure 2008 (£m) by UK NUTS S3 Area and Visit Type, ONS,

May 2011

71% of Tourism expenditure in Worcestershire comes from Domestic Day visitors. This is

a much higher proportion than for the West Midlands as a whole (56% of the total

expenditure).

Worcestershire accounts for 7.7% of the total tourism expenditure in the West

Midlands.

Overall, visitor expenditure in the West Midlands is much more varied; over 6 times

the proportion for Worcestershire is spent by domestic outbound visitors in the West

Midlands. This makes the Worcestershire Visitor economy much more dependant on

the Domestic Day Visitors and this could result in serious issues if the Domestic Day

Visitor market was to decrease.

Chart 5.1 Expenditure by Visitor Type as a percentage of Total Visitor Expenditure

(£m) in Worcestershire

7.1

18.6

71.4

3

Inbound Visitors

Domestic Overnight Visitors

Domestic Day Visitors

Domestic Outbound Visitors

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Chart 5.2 Expenditure by Visitor Type as a percentage of Total Visitor Expenditure

(£m) in the West Midlands

There is a difference between the figures for the total domestic annual spend shown

above and the combined amount of Domestic Overnight Visitors, Domestic Day

Visitors and Domestic Outbound spend. This may be a result of the models used to

evaluate the domestic spends: Estimated Tourism Expenditure 2008 is based upon

the London Local Area Tourism Impact model whilst the Great Britain Survey analysis

is based upon a unique weighted model.

6) Value of tourism expenditure by activity (e.g. accommodation, transport

activities, food & drink)

Table 6.1 Tourism expenditure by activity

Geographical

Location

Tourism Expenditure (£m)

Accommo

dation

Services for

Visitors

Food and

Beverage

serving

services

Passenger

Transport

Services

Cultural,

Sport and

Recreational

Services

Other

Products

Worcestershire 46 124 12 46 310

West Midlands 610 1,451 1,017 460 3,451 Source: Estimated Tourism Expenditure 2008 (£m) by UK NUTS S3 Area and Visit Type, ONS,

May 2011

On average, tourism expenditure by product in Worcestershire accounts for 9.1% of

the total expenditure for each product in the West Midlands. However, expenditure

on passenger transport services in Worcestershire is a much lower proportion of the

total West Midland expenditure (only 1.2%).

8.5

17.2

56

18.3

Inbound Visitors

Domestic Overnight Visitors

Domestic Day Visitors

Domestic Outbound Visitors

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Table 6.2 Tourism expenditure by activity as a percentage of total tourism

expenditure

Geographical

Location

Tourism Expenditure (% of total for each area)

Accommo

dation

Services for

Visitors

Food and

Beverage

serving

services

Passenger

Transport

Services

Cultural,

Sport and

Recreational

Services

Other

Products

Worcestershire 8.6% 23.0% 2.2% 8.6% 57.6%

West Midlands 8.7% 20.8% 14.6% 6.6% 49.4% Source: Estimated Tourism Expenditure 2008 (£m) by UK NUTS S3 Area and Visit Type, ONS,

May 2011

The activity with the greatest proportion of spending in Worcestershire and the West

Midlands is ‘other products’ which includes fairs, events and exhibitions. These

account for approximately half of the total tourism expenditure in the West

Midlands, but an additional 8.2% in Worcestershire.

Food and beverage serving services receives the second highest proportion of

spending; with comparable percentages in both Worcestershire (23.0%) and the

West Midlands (20.8%). Cultural, sport and recreational services attribute a two

percent larger proportion of tourism expenditure in Worcestershire than in the West

Midlands.

The greatest difference in proportions of tourism expenditure between

Worcestershire and the West Midlands relate to Passenger Transport services.

Passenger Transport accounts for nearly 15% of tourism expenditure in the West

Midlands, but only 2.2% in Worcestershire. This may be due to the differences in scale

between the two areas and the nature of visits to the area; visitors to the West

Midlands may travel across a wide area such as Birmingham to Ironbridge, whilst

visitors to Worcestershire have a much shorter distance to travel.

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Tourism Related Employment

7) Total tourism related employment (total number and as a percentage of all sector

workforce)

Table 7.1 Total number and proportion of workers in tourism related employment

Geographical Location Total Number in

tourism related

employment

% of all sector

Workforce

Total Working

Population

Worcestershire 25,100 10 240,380

Bromsgrove 4,700 13 36,150

Malvern Hills 3,500 13 26,920

Redditch 2,400 6 40,000

Worcester City 4,900 9 54,440

Wychavon 5,000 10 50,000

Wyre Forest 4,600 14 32,860

West Midlands 226,300 9 2,514,440 Source: Tourism Employment 2009, Visit England

This table shows that there are marked differences in the numbers and percentages

of workers employed in the tourism industry across Worcestershire. The highest

numbers employed are in Wychavon and Worcester City, but the highest

percentage of tourism employees compared to the rest of the economy is in Wyre.

Forest, where is accounts for more than one job in every seven.

Worcestershire accounts for 9.6% of the total numbers of tourism related

employment across the West Midlands.

Table 7.2 Percentage of Tourism Related employment by local authority

Geographical Location Total Number in tourism

related employment

% of Tourism Related

employment in Worcestershire

Worcestershire 25,100 100.0

Bromsgrove 4,700 18.7

Malvern Hills 3,500 13.9

Redditch 2,400 9.6

Worcester City 4,900 19.5

Wychavon 5,000 19.9

Wyre Forest 4,600 18.3 Source: Tourism Employment 2009, Visit England

Wychavon accounts for almost one fifth of the total numbers of tourism related

employment in Worcestershire and Worcester City accounts for another 19.5%. There

are comparable numbers between 4 of the 6 local authorities, with less than 1.6%

between the Wychavon and the Wyre Forest.

However, the Malvern Hills and Redditch account for the smallest proportions of

tourism related employment in Worcestershire. 13.9% and 9.6% respectively. This is

surprising, due to the high value of visitor spend and high number of visitor trips in

Malvern.

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8) Tourism related employment by industry

Based upon the figure for the total numbers employed in the tourism sector, it is

possible to approximate the numbers employed in the industry by industry. In order

to estimate these, the proportions employed in each industry across the West

Midlands were used and then applied to Worcestershire and the six districts making it

up.

The largest proportion of staff is employed within the food and beverage serving

activities. 48% of tourism related employees work in the ‘food and beverage serving

activities’ sector.

The accommodation sector is the smallest employer of tourism related staff, with

only 2,897 of the total number of employers, approximately 12% of the total number

of tourism employees.

Table 8.1 Employment by Tourism Sector

Geographical

Location

Employment by Tourism Sector Total

Fo

od

an

d

be

ve

rag

e

serv

ing

ac

tivitie

s

Cu

ltura

l, spo

rts,

rec

rea

tion

&

co

nfe

ren

ce

ac

tivitie

s

Pa

ssen

ge

r

tran

spo

rt,

tran

spo

rt hire

&

trave

l ag

en

cy

ac

tivitie

s

Ac

co

mm

od

ati

on

for v

isitors

Worcestershir

e

12,229 5,469

4,505

2,897

25,100

Bromsgrove 2,290

1,024

844

542

4,700

Malvern Hills 1,705

763

628

404

3,500

Redditch 1,169

523

431

277

2,400

Worcester

City

2,387

1,068

880

565

4,900

Wychavon 2,436

1,090

898

577

5,000

Wyre Forest 2,241

1,002

826

531

4,600

West Midlands 110,253

49,311

40,621

26,115

226,300

Source: Annual population survey, 2011.

Figures for Worcestershire and the local authorities have been estimated using the

percentages for the West Midlands overall.

9) Tourism related employment by industry and by nature (e.g. full time and part

time)

In Worcestershire overall, only 41% of tourism related employment is full time. Almost

three-fifths are only part time.

The highest proportions of full time staff are in Wychavon, Malvern Hills and

Worcester City. These are the areas with the greatest numbers of visits per year and

the highest visitor expenditure.

The Wyre forest has the lowest proportion of full time staff with only 37%, whilst

Bromsgrove and Redditch are only slightly higher with 38%. Wyre may have fewer full

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time jobs due to the more rural nature of the area and the more seasonal nature of

the tourism jobs.

Table 9.1 Nature of Tourism Employment

Geographical

Location

Nature of Employment

Full Time Part Time

Nu

mb

ers

% o

f tota

l

Tou

rism

Em

plo

ym

en

t

Nu

mb

ers

% o

f tota

l

Tou

rism

Em

plo

ym

en

t

Worcestershire 10,200 41% 14,900 59%

Bromsgrove 1,800 38% 2,900 62%

Malvern Hills 1,500 43% 2,000 57%

Redditch 900 38% 1,500 62%

Worcester City 2,100 43% 2,800 57%

Wychavon 2,200 44% 2,800 56%

Wyre Forest 1,700 37% 2,900 63%

West Midlands 102,500 45% 107,400 55%

Source: Tourism Employment 2009, Visit England

10) Tourism related employment by occupation

At present it is not possible to give accurate, up to date information about tourism

related employment by occupation for Worcestershire. This data is not currently

available and will not be available until the results of the 2011 census have been fully

published.

11) Percentage of tourism related businesses reporting hard-to-fill vacancies

Table 11.1 Proportion of tourism related businesses reporting hard-to-fill vacancies

Geographical

Location

Tourism Related Businesses reporting hard-to-fill vacancies (%)

Worcestershire 30.8%

West Midlands 33.6% Source: UK Employer Skills Survey, 2011

Worcestershire has a lower proportion of tourism related businesses reporting hard-

to-fill vacancies compared to the West Midlands as a whole. Tourism related

businesses in Worcestershire are, proportionally, nearly 10% less likely to report hard-

to-fill vacancies than the West Midlands. This may be due to the different, more

specialised roles in the West Midlands compared to Worcestershire, such as pilots.

Table 11.2 Hard-to-fill vacancies as a proportion of all vacancies.

Geographical Location Hard-to-fill vacancies as a percentage of all tourism

vacancies (%)


West Midlands 26.0%

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Source: UK Employer Skills Survey, 2011

Worcestershire has a higher proportion of hard-to-fill vacancies compared to all

tourism related vacancies than the West Midlands. An additional 5.7% of tourism

roles are hard-to-fill.

These two tables suggest that there are fewer businesses in Worcestershire that

report hard-to-fill vacancies than the West Midlands, but there are more hard-to-fill

roles per business than in the West Midlands.

12) Percentage of tourism related businesses reporting skills gaps

Table 12.1 Percentage of businesses reporting skills gaps

Geographical

Location

Businesses reporting skills gaps (%)



Worcestershire has a lower proportion of tourism related businesses reporting skills

gaps compared to the West Midlands as a whole. Proportionally, tourism related

businesses are 5.6% less likely to report skills gaps in Worcestershire than in the West


The table below shows the proportion of tourism related staff with skills gaps.

Worcestershire has only half the proportion of employees with skills gaps compared

to the West Midlands, despite comparable businesses reporting skills gaps. This

suggests that there are fewer staff with skills gaps per business in Worcestershire than

in the West Midlands.

Table 12.2 Staff with skills gaps as a proportion of all tourism staff

Geographical

Location

Percentage of staff with skills gaps of all tourism staff (%)

Worcestershire 5.6%


Tourism staff in Worcestershire is almost half as likely to have skills gaps compared to

staff from across the West Midlands. This also shows that, on average, there are

fewer staff with skills gap per business in Worcestershire compared to the West


13) Qualification levels of tourism related employees

Table 13.1 Qualification levels of tourism related employees

Geographical

Location

Qualifications (% of tourism workforce)

No

qualifications

NVQ

Level 1

NVQ

Level 2

NVQ

Level 3

NVQ Level 4

or above

Worcestershire 6% 23% 32% 18% 20%

West Midlands 8% 26% 31% 18% 17% Source: Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism Overview, People First, 2010 and BRES, 2010

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*Data extrapolated from data for all sectors in Worcestershire

From the table, it can be seen that the levels of qualification attainment in the

Worcestershire tourism industry is slightly higher than for the West Midlands as a

whole. Two percent fewer staff working in the Worcestershire tourism sector have no

qualifications compared to the West Midlands as a whole. Three percent more staff

have level 4 qualifications or more in the Worcester tourism sector compared to the

West Midlands as a whole.

This table is an estimate of the qualification attainment levels in Worcestershire. It has

been used by calculating the ratio between the levels of attainment in the tourism

sector in the West Midlands and for all areas of the economy. This ratio was then

applied to the levels of qualification attainment in all areas of the economy in

Worcestershire to find an approximate value for the levels of qualification

attainment for the tourism sector in Worcestershire.

Tourism Related Businesses

14) Total number of tourism related businesses

Table 14.1 Total number and proportion of tourism related businesses

Geographical

Location

Total

Number of

Tourism

Related

Businesses

Total Number of

Businesses

(Tourism and

Non-Tourism)

Tourism Related Businesses

as a percentage of the

total number of businesses

(Tourism and Non-tourism)

Worcestershire 1279 22,043 5.7%

Bromsgrove 188 4,058 4.6%

Malvern Hills 301 3,293 9.1%

Redditch 118 2,886 4.1%

Worcester City 182 3,185 5.7%

Wychavon 321 5,468 5.9%

Wyre Forest 169 3,153 5.4%

West Midlands 10,353 195,662 5.3% Source: Fame, BVD, 2012

(See Annex 1 below for the SIC Codes 2007 used for the tourism related businesses)

Worcestershire accounts for 12.3% of the total number of tourism related businesses

in the West Midlands. This is slightly higher than the proportion of all businesses, as

Worcestershire only accounts for 11.3% of the total number of businesses in the West

Midlands.

Tourism related businesses account for 5.7% of the total number of businesses in

Worcestershire, which is slightly higher than the proportion in the West Midlands as a

whole (5.3%)

Wychavon has the greatest number of tourism related businesses. Malvern has the

highest proportion of tourism related businesses, as a percentage of the total

number of businesses in the area; at 9.1%, this is almost double the average for

Worcestershire as a whole.

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Redditch has both the lowest number and proportion of tourism related businesses in

Worcestershire. As shown above, it also employs the smallest proportion of tourism

related staff in Worcestershire, with less than one-tenth of the tourism related jobs in

Worcestershire.

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Chart 14.1 The percentage of the total tourism related businesses in Worcestershire in

each local authority

Source: Fame, BVD, 2012

From Chart 14.1 it can be seen that, combined, the Malvern Hills and Wychavon

account for almost half of the tourism related businesses in Worcestershire. Relatively,

Redditch has a small tourism sector, accounting for less than ten percent of the total

number of tourism businesses in Worcestershire.

Bromsgrove, Worcester City and the Wyre Forest combined account for only 42.1%

of the tourism related businesses in Worcestershire.

The table below compares tourism related employment and the proportion of

tourism related businesses in each local authority.

Table 14.2 Comparison of the percentages of tourism related businesses and

employment in Worcestershire and local authorities

Geographical

Location

Total

Number of

Tourism

Related

Businesses

Percentage of

total tourism

related

businesses in

Worcestershire

Total number

in Tourism

Related

Employment

% of Tourism

Related

employment

in

Worcestershire

Worcestershire 1279 100.0 25,100 100.0%

Bromsgrove 188 14.7% 4,700 18.7%

Malvern Hills 301 23.5% 3,500 13.9%

Redditch 118 9.2% 2,400 9.6%

Worcester City 182 14.2% 4,900 19.5%

14.7%

23.5%

9.2% 14.2%

25.1%

13.2%

Bromsgrove

Malvern Hills

Reddict

Worcester City

Wychavon

Wyre Forest

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Wychavon 321 25.1% 5,000 19.9%

Wyre Forest 169 13.2% 4,600 18.3% Source: Fame, BVD, 2012 and Tourism Employment 2009, Visit England

From this table, the number of employees per business can be ascertained. On

average, tourism related companies in the Malvern Hills have only 12 employees,

whilst the average in Bromsgrove and Worcester City is more than double that (25

and 26 respectively) .

This shows the differences in the structure of the tourism industry in each local

authority. The Malvern Hills and Wychavon have fewer employees per business with

a larger number of businesses, whilst the Wyre Forest, Worcester City and Bromsgrove

have fewer businesses but with a larger workforce at each. Redditch has a small

number of businesses, with a relatively small work-force working at each.

15) Total number of Tourism related businesses by Industry

Table 15.1 Total Number of Tourism Related Businesses by Industry.

Geographical

Location

Total Number of Tourism Related Businesses by Industry

Accommodation

Services for

Visitors

Food and

Beverage serving

services

Passenger

Transport Services

Number

of

busines

ses

% of all

tourism

busine

sses

Numb

er of

busine

sses

% of all

tourism

business

es

Number

of

business

es

% of all

tourism

busines

ses

Worcestershire 131 10.2% 542 42.4% 107 8.4%

Bromsgrove 25 13.3% 73 38.8% 17 9.0%

Malvern Hills 30 10.0% 163 54.2% 15 5.0%

Redditch 5 4.2% 50 42.4% 20 16.9%

Worcester

City

15 8.2% 70 38.5% 10 5.5%

Wychavon 36 11.2% 127 39.6% 27 8.4%

Wyre Forest 20 11.8% 59 34.9% 18 10.7%

West Midlands 992 9.6% 4,897 47.3% 988 9.5%

Geographical

Location

Total Number of Tourism Related Businesses by Industry

Cultural, Sport and

Recreational Services

Other Tourism Related

Industries

Number of

businesses

% of all

tourism

businesses

Number of

businesses

% of all

tourism

businesses

Worcestershire 474 37.1% 25 2.0%

Bromsgrove 70 37.2% 3 1.6%

Malvern Hills 90 29.9% 3 1.0%

Redditch 39 33.1% 4 3.4%

Worcester City 83 45.6% 4 2.2%

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(See Annex 1 below for the SIC Codes 2007 used for the tourism related businesses by

specific industry)

In both Worcestershire and the West Midlands, the largest proportions of tourism

related businesses are food and beverage serving services (42.4% and 47.4%

respectively) and cultural, sport and recreational services (37.1% and 32.0%

respectively).

‘Other tourism businesses’ such as exhibition and fair organisers represent the

smallest proportion of tourism related businesses. Redditch has the highest proportion

of these businesses, with more than double the proportion in the West Midlands as a

whole. This is due to the overall smaller number of tourism businesses in Redditch, as

there are as many ‘other tourism related’ businesses in Redditch as other areas.

Chart 15.1 Proportions of Tourism Related Businesses in Worcestershire by Industry.


10.2%

42.4%

8.4%

37.1%

2.0%

Accommodations Services for Visitors

Food and Beverage serving services

Passenger Transport Services

Cultural, Sport and Recreational Services

Other Tourism Related Industries

Wychavon 124 38.6% 7 2.2%

Wyre Forest 68 40.2% 4 2.4%

West Midlands 3,318 32.0% 158 1.5%

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Chart 15.2 Proportions of Tourism Related Businesses in the West Midlands by Industry.


From the two charts, it can be seen that the proportions of tourism related businesses

by industry are overall very similar. The greatest difference between them is that

there are relatively 5.1% more cultural, sport and recreational businesses in

Worcestershire, and food and beverage serving services account for 4.9% of tourism

related businesses in the West Midlands.

9.6%

47.3%

9.5%

32.0%

1.5%

Accommodations Services for Visitors

Food and Beverage serving services

Passenger Transport Services

Cultural, Sport and Recreational Services

Other Tourism Related Industries

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Conclusion

Tourism is vitally important to the Worcestershire economy, accounting for £538

million a year across the county. There are 738,000 domestic day visits, 1,954,000

domestic overnight stays and 101,000 overseas visits every year. Tourism provides

employment for ten percent of the working population in Worcestershire and

generates revenue for 1,279 businesses. It is an important industry which must

continue to be encouraged in order to develop further.

Tourism in Worcestershire is highly reliant on Domestic Day visitors with over 70% of

revenue coming from this single source. In order to secure the visitor economy in

Worcestershire, it would be useful to diversify and increase the share of other visitor

types, such as inbound and domestic overnight. These other visitors are also most

likely to spend more money in the local economy and increase the total value of

Worcestershire tourism.

The impacts of tourism differ between the local authorities in the county. More urban

areas such as Redditch and Bromsgrove receive a much smaller share of the visitor

economy, with fewer visitors, visitor expenditure and tourism related businesses. Rural

areas, such as Malvern Hills, Wychavon and Wyre Forest, and areas with cultural

significance, such as Worcester City, receive more visitors, greater visitor expenditure

and higher tourism related employment. More people visit these rural and cultural

areas, tend to stay longer and are more likely to there for holidays than areas like

Redditch and Bromsgrove. It would be useful to concentrate on improving the

appeal of these areas, such as developing the business tourism industry or new fairs

and exhibitions to increase visitor interest in these areas.

Hard-to-fill vacancies and skills gaps are a significant issue in the Worcestershire

visitor economy. Whilst the skills gaps are lower than for the West Midlands as a

whole, nearly one in five businesses report skills gaps and over one in twenty tourism

workers have some form of skills gap. This is linked to the levels of qualification

attainment in the tourism sector in Worcestershire. It is important to ensure that

tourism staff are fully proficient and adequately trained for the available jobs, to

prevent the high percentages of hard-to-fill vacancies.

Overall, the visitor economy in Worcestershire is similar to the West Midlands, but on

a smaller scale. There are comparable proportions of tourism related businesses,

employees in tourism related occupations, the nature of how tourism employees

work, the products visitors spend their money on and even the proportions of hard-

to-fill vacancies and businesses reporting skills gaps in the West Midlands and

Worcestershire. Whilst the West Midland’s visitor economy is thirteen times more

valuable than Worcestershire’s, the structures of their tourism markets are very similar

for both.

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Appendix One: SIC Codes 2007 for Tourism Related Businesses

The SIC codes used in the report have been based upon the SIC Codes used for the

ONS ‘Sub-regional Value of Tourism in 2008’ report

Industry SIC Code SIC Code - Sector

Accommodation

Services for

Visitors

55100 Hotels and similar accommodation

55201 Holiday centres and villages

55202 Youth Hostels

55209 Other holiday and other collective

accommodations

55300 Recreational vehicle parks, trailer parks and

camping grounds

55900 Other accommodation

Food and

Beverage Serving

56101 Licensed restaurants

56102 Unlicensed restaurants and cafes

56103 Take-away food shops and mobile food stands

56210 Event catering activities

56290 Other food services

56301 Licensed clubs

56302 Public houses and bars

Passenger

Transport

Services

49100 Passenger rail transport, interurban

49320 Taxi operation

49390 Other passenger land transport

50100 Sea and coastal passenger water transport

50300 Inland passenger water transport

51101 Scheduled passenger air transport

51102 Non-scheduled passenger air transport

77110 Renting and leasing of cars and light motor

vehicles

77341 Renting and leasing of passenger water transport

equipment

77351 Renting and leasing of air passenger transport

equipment

Cultural, Sport

and Recreational

Services

77210 Renting and leasing of recreational and sports

goods

92000 Gambling and betting activities

93110 Operation of sports facilities

93199 Other sports activities

93210 Activities of amusement parks and theme parks

93290 Other amusement and recreation activities n.e.c

90010 Performing arts

90020 Support activities to performing arts

90030 Artistic creation

90040 Operation of arts facilities

91020 Museums activities

91030 Operation of historical sites and buildings and

similar visitor attractions

91040 Botanical and zoological gardens and nature

reserves activities

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Other Tourism

Related

Businesses

82301 Activities of exhibition and fair organisers

82302 Activities of conference organisers

the value of tourism in worcestershire final report march...

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